CIJ: The Edge should have revealed US$2m Justo deal from start
(Malay Mail Online) – The Edge Media Group should have declared its arrangement to secure documents on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), a media group said today after Datuk Tong Kooi Ong confessed to “misleading” Xavier Andre Justo with a promise of US$2 million.
The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) said that while it was not wrong for Tong to trick the former PetroSaudi International executive in order to obtain the documents, readers of The Edge should have been informed to allow them to properly weigh reports based on these.
“Given the significant public interest, and the vast sums of money involved, the decision of The Edge editorial team to offer money to Xavier Andre Justo in exchange for information may have been justified,” CIJ’s director Sonia Randhawa said.
“The Edge could have alerted their readers’ to the reason why Justo had been willing to talk to them, explained their motivation from the outset… it is important that this information has surfaced, as it allows readers to evaluate the story more completely.”
Randhawa added that journalists should declare any potential conflict of interest that could affect their stories.
Earlier today, The Edge Media Group’s owner and editor publicly confessed to tricking Justo over a promised US$2 million (RM7.6 million) payment in return for documents the Swiss man stole from his former employer PetroSaudi International (PSI).
The duo’s admission was published on The Malaysian Insider (TMI) news portal, which is also under The Edge Media Group after Justo revealed to Singapore daily Straits Times (ST) that he was offered close to US$2 million by a “prominent” Malaysian businessman and his colleague.
They justified their action by saying that was the only way they could have acquired the documents from Justo to expose how “a group of a small group of Malaysians and foreigners cheated the people of Malaysia of US$1.83 billion.
The Home Ministry today suspended the group’s publishing permits for their daily and weekly.
